Lewis Hamilton may still be on the hunt for a record-breaking eighth Formula One world title, but his tone going into the new season is notably subdued compared to previous years.
After the controversial end to the 2021 season, which saw Mercedes’ Hamilton lose the championship to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on the final lap of the final race, Hamilton returned hungry to reclaim his crown.
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Instead, he finished a sobering, struggle-filled 2022 in sixth place, marking his first season without a win. As new technical regulations forced vast redesigns to the cars and reset the competitive order, Mercedes’ W13 car lagged behind those of Red Bull and Ferrari. Mercedes claimed just one victory, courtesy of George Russell in Brazil.
At the launch of Mercedes’ new F1 car, the W14, earlier this month, Hamilton acknowledged his change in mindset. “I wouldn’t say I’m bullish like I was last year,” he said. “Just more cautious.”
It’s an approach that echoes across Mercedes. The team learned the hard way last year just how hard the bump back to earth can be, going from a record eight straight constructors’ championships (from 2014 to 2021) to being content with podiums. It also knew how important it was to rectify the issues with the W13, which, in the words of Hamilton, “didn’t behave like a racing car should.”
Instead of hiding the car away, the plan is to place it in the lobby of Mercedes’ headquarters in Brackley, England. Despite the W13’s flaws, team principal Toto Wolff has said it will be “a symbol of boldness,” and a reminder of how bad things were before its successor, the W14, launched Mercedes’ climb back to the top.
What went so wrong with the Mercedes W13?
It might be easier to say what went right with the Mercedes W13. As F1 shook up its technical regulations, returning to ground effect designs — where tunnels underneath the car help create downforce, effectively sucking it to the surface — a new buzzword entered the series’ lexicon: porpoising.
The bobbing behavior hurt Mercedes more than most teams. Hamilton and Russell were vocal about the issue throughout the year, with the resulting safety concerns forcing a tweak to the floor design rules for this year.
When the team made its first major changes to the 2022 car, six races into the season at the Spanish Grand Prix, it thought it had made a breakthrough and fixed the porpoising. Then other issues emerged, such as problems with the car’s balance and the difficulty of getting the tires up to the optimal temperature. Wolff compared it to peeling off layers of an onion, discovering more problems with each wave of analysis, while the drivers lost confidence behind the wheel.
It was not until a late-season upgrade package at the United States Grand Prix — round 19 of 22 — that Mercedes became a real threat at the front again. Its 1-2 finish in Brazil avoided a winless campaign, but it knew big changes were still required with the W14.
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“The main thing we want is definitely more consistency and a more predictable car,” Russell said at the launch of the W14. “If you could choose a balance that you would least like to have, the W13 probably had it.” Hamilton added that he wanted changes to “pretty much everything,” covering “every element from the tip of the back to the tip of the front.”
Keeping the good
Mike Elliott, Mercedes’ technical director, was wary about going back to square one. “We know if we tear it all up and we start again, you’re going to start further backwards,” he said at the launch of the 2023 car. “It’s about making those right decisions. Although we had a lot of problems last year, I think there was a lot of goodness in the car.”
That’s why the W14 did not offer a drastic design diversion compared to its predecessor. Mercedes even kept the “zeropod” super slim sidepod design that helps airflow to the rear of the car, despite Wolff’s suggestion that the DNA and architecture of the car would change. Mercedes remains the only team to pursue the slim design concept, which is drastically different from the Red Bull and Ferrari approaches.
Mercedes W14 🆚 Ferrari SF-23 👀#F1 #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/7mDDB1zUCs
— Formula 1 (@F1) February 23, 2023
Wolff didn’t consider the sidepod design a reason Mercedes didn’t perform last year, but he acknowledged it could change with developments that come throughout the season. The team made some tweaks to the bodywork of the W14 at launch, particularly around the engine cover, with a deeper gulley to help airflow to the rear of the car in lieu of the traditional sidepods. But it was far from the overhaul many thought would come given the challenges of last year.
In fact, the most noticeable change on the W14 was the paint job. To help save weight, the team switched from its traditional silver livery and went back to black — used in 2020 and 2021 as part of its anti-racism messaging — with the W14. This meant it could run bare carbon on most of the car and shave off a few hundred grams without impacting the overall look. “There is not tons of weight that you can save on the paint,” said Wolff. “But it shows the intent of what we do.”
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An encouraging baseline
After getting a small taste of the new Mercedes in a shakedown at Silverstone after the launch, Hamilton and Russell’s first extended running in the car came this week in Bahrain. It was at this point last year the alarm bells started ringing with the W13, making it an important moment to see if the changes had paid off.
The first impressions were encouraging. Wolff was quick to report on Thursday there was “no bouncing”, pointing to its progress on the porpoising front. Both drivers completed a trouble-free first day of testing in Bahrain, and reported a better feeling behind the wheel compared to last year. A more difficult second day followed, highlighted by a hydraulic failure for Russell in the evening. Hamilton said there were still some “underlying things that we’re working through,” particularly with the car setup.
But the team feels happier with its position compared to pre-season last year. “It feels like a step in the right direction,” said Russell. “Comparing it to this time 12 months ago, things are running a lot smoother.” He acknowledged there were still things to improve, such as the balance of the car mid-corner.
But the drivers’ impressions are that it is a car that Mercedes can properly develop and improve without the baked-in issues of last season. Wolff called it a “very solid base”, while Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, called it a “much calmer, more stable platform” to work off.
Does that mean the W14 will take Mercedes back to the top? Not just yet. Russell said on Friday in Bahrain he thought it was a “stretch” to take the fight to Red Bull from the opening race of the season, especially since Verstappen’s outfit looks terrific in testing. But with the core issues seemingly under control, there is renewed hope the car will point Mercedes back in the right direction.
“There’s no reason why eventually we can’t get there at some point this year,” said Russell. “We’ve always seen the strength of Mercedes and its development rate. So definitely, the belief is there.”
(Photo illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Photos: Qian Jun/MB Media, Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto, Paul Crock/AFP / Getty Images)
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